Is The Deranged GOP Primary Making Romney Unelectable?

The theory was that a feisty Republican primary would introduce Mitt Romney, long ordained as the ultimate selection of the Republican Party Establishment, to the public through a series of exciting, nicely staged debates. And sure enough, the debates were as popular as a TV reality show, with TV viewers identifying with the contestants in emotional and visceral ways. Unfortunately for Romney, the series seems to have done him more harm than good.

In episode after episode he's come off as essentially dishonest and dissembling. The Washington Post's Greg Sargent highlighted the dilemma he's facing after Thursday night's debate in Jacksonville.

How do you explain Mitt Romney’s penchant for casually uttering statements that can be completely debunked as quickly as he makes them?

By all accounts, Romney won last night’s debate, and his grip on the nomination appears to be tightening. The question is at what cost to his credibility. At last night’s debate, for instance, Romney claimed that Obama “went before the United Nations” and “said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip.”

This is flat out false. Obama talked about the rockets hitting Israel in two speeches before the U.N.: One in 2009, and the other in 2011.

All you have to do is click on the links, and search for the word “rocket.”

Oh wait, I get it now. Romney claimed Obama said nothing about the “thousands” of rockets being rained on Israel. And it’s true: Obama didn’t use the word “thousands.” My bad!

The Boston Globe has been watching Romney for a long, long time and they're more expert in watching him bob and weave his way through the avalanche of lies and distortions his campaigns always are. Friday they pointed out why the latest debate strains his credibility even more.

Mitt Romney last night attacked Newt Gingrich’s record and credibility for the second consecutive debate, aiming to win the Florida primary and the Republican presidential nomination.

But in the process, he fudged elements of his own record that undercut his own credibility and fueled the type of criticism that may cost him the general election if not the nomination.

It was crystallized in one early moment, when moderator Wolf Blitzer noted the coarseness of the television ad wars in Florida and asked Romney what he meant in one radio ad that accused Gingrich of saying, “Spanish is the language of the ghetto.”

Romney, perhaps thinking of his own TV ads, replied: “I haven’t seen the ad, so I’m sorry. I don’t get to see all the TV ads. Did he say that?”

...Romney retorted: “I doubt that’s my ad, but we’ll take a look and find out.”

Blitzer, the CNN anchor, returned to the subject moments later and reported that Romney’s ad had, in fact, accused Gingrich of saying, “Spanish is the language of the ghetto.”

Blitzer also noted that Romney ended the ad with a standard disclaimer, “I’m Mitt Romney and I approve this message.”

As the crowd booed, Romney turned from any potential criticism of his credibility to an attack on Gingrich’s record.

...In isolation, Romney’s obliviousness to an ad he personally approved is understandable, given the pressures of a presidential campaign and the multi-pronged ad wars being waged by him and third-party groups working on his behalf.

But his disavowal of a line of attack prominent in his Florida campaign suggested a disingenuousness that was buttressed by other comments during the debate.

To me it sounded like a distracted, irresponsible and incompetent CEO who needs to be fired. But the broader picture is far worse for the Republican Party. The viciousness of the long drawn-out primary-- and, thanks to Citizens United, there's plenty more to go-- is destroying the electability of any Republican participating. They're making a play for the right-wing extremists and know-nothings who make up the GOP base, especially in backward places like up-country South Carolina and the Florida Panhandle, but they're doing it in front of normal American voters who are appalled at what they're hearing. Even the Republican Establishment is noticing and realizing what a huge mistake this whole process has become. Eric Boehlert reports at MediaMatters:

More and more despondent conservatives are expressing alarm over the unfolding Republican primary season and what they see as the party's dwindling chances of defeating President Obama in November. Spooked at the general elections prospects facing frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (especially Gingrich), members of the so-called Republican Establishment seem to want to reboot the election season and try their nominating luck again.

Sorry, it's too late.

If the current state of concern transforms into a larger, enveloping blame game, Fox News chairman Ailes ought be a looming target. True, conservatives in recent years have shown virtually no interest in critiquing, let alone trying to reign in, Ailes' empire. Still, it's becoming increasingly clear that Fox's programming and the radical, fear-based agenda it's setting for Republicans is now doing lasting damage to the Grand Old Party.

That's because Fox News isn't simply offering a rightward take on the day's events, or innocently providing Republican-friendly commentary, of course. It's leading an exhausting, day-in, day-out attack campaign against Obama, Democrats and all their liberal allies. (Real or imagined.) Its relentless, paranoid crusade falls well outside the mainstream of American politics, which is why the Republican primary season, so proudly sponsored by Fox News, is shaping up to be such an embarrassment.

Make no mistake, kingmaker Ailes has made sure his channel's profoundly un-serious stamp permeates this year's GOP contest. For more and more spooked Republicans though, it's a stamp of failure and looming defeat.

For Ailes and company, that slash-and-burn formula works wonders in terms of super-serving its hardcore, hard-right audience of three million viewers. But in terms of supporting a serious, national campaign and a serious, national conversation? It's not working. At all.

As Fox News has moved in and essentially replaced the RNC as the driving electoral force in Republican politics today, and with Ailes ensconced in his kingmaker role, candidates have had to bow down to Fox in search of votes and the channel's coveted free airtime. That means campaigns have been forced to become part of the channel's culture of personal destruction, as well as its signature self-pity.

The truth is, the Republican Establishment all but ceded control of the party, or at least the public face of the party, to Fox News (and Rush Limbaugh) in January, 2009. Party leaders, demoralized by John McCain's electoral landslide defeat, faded into the background and obediently followed Fox News' often-hysterical lead as Rupert Murdoch's cable channel unveiled an unprecedented effort to demonize and delegitimize the newly elected president. (In the Fox-led world, it's conventional wisdom that Obama's a foreign, race-baiting Marxist who undermines Israel and is determined to destroy the American way of life.)

Conclusion: Fox is destroying the GOP. A New NBC/Wall Street Journal poll rubs it in, showing the implausible, despised Gingrich actually leading the party's eventual nominee. As they point out, Gingrich not only can't beat Obama, he would probably cause the Republicans to lose Congress and even state legislatures. He's leading Romney 37- 28% nationally among registered Republicans likely to vote in the primaries. That's because Gingrich appeals to neo-Confederates and teabaggers and Romney doesn't.

"Gingrich is Goldwater," said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "In the general election, Gingrich not only takes down his ship, he takes down the whole flotilla."

...Romney’s strength as a candidate is thought to be his business experience, as it relates to the economy. But GOP primary voters call it a “draw” between Gingrich and Romney when it comes to economic expertise, Hart said.

...There’s also evidence in the poll of a Republican brand problem.

All of the GOP candidates are a net-negative in favorability ratings, with Santorum getting the best marks-- 26 percent positive, 27 percent negative.

Gingrich gets the worst-- 26-32.

Romney scores 31-36, and it’s worth noting that Bob Dole, John McCain, and George W. Bush were all net-positives at the same time in their fights for the nomination. The exception of a recent major party nominee being a net-negative at this point-- John Kerry, who was 22-26 in January 2004.

“Romney’s numbers are net-negative, which is unusual,” McInturff said.

Hart added, “It’s hard to make the case that anything but injury has come off the Republican brand off Congress and electorate.”

The congressional approval rating is near record lows of 13 percent, and more people say the GOP has brought the wrong kind of change (31 percent) in Congress than the right kind (12 percent). That represents a drop for the Republicans from a year ago, right after they took control of the House as a result of the sweeping 2010 elections. In January 2011, 25 percent thought Republicans would bring the right kind of change versus 20 percent who thought they would bring the wrong kind.

Those attitudes are also far worse than right after Democrats took control of the House in 2006 (42-15 percent) and Republicans regained a majority in 1994 (37-11 percent).

Additionally, Democrats lead in who people prefer to control Congress, the so-called congressional ballot, 47-41 percent. It’s the fourth consecutive month Democrats have led on the question and it has expanded from their two-point lead a month ago.

This reinforces the need to work hard to elect progressives to Congress. Not corrupt DCCC hacks, but real progressives with real New Deal values, men and women like Darcy Burner (D-WA), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Norman Solomon (D-CA), Ilya Sheyman (D-IL), Franke Wilmer (D-MT), Nick Ruiz (D-FL), Eric Griego (D-NM) and John Waltz (D-MI). If you want to help, you can do it at this link. It's not enough to defeat Romney and the Republicans. The DCCC and the Establishment Democrats are, in effect, as bad for America. Unless we replace corrupt corporate conservatives of both parties with progressives, we'll just keep swinging wildly from crappy party to crappy party as voters get angrier and angrier.